Aug

19

A Look A Lithium Accumulators

August 19, 2008 | 11 Comments

Many of us are familiar with accumulators in gas and hydraulic systems as a vessel that stores a volume usually with an internal diaphragm that has a spring force by a compressed gas. The result is a cell that can buffer the system gases or fluids smoothing pressure spikes. As a practical point though, a [...]

Aug

18

Renewables Grow Up From Being a Carrot to Carrying a Whip

August 18, 2008 | 4 Comments

Congress can’t get the alternative energy credits renewed and on the books for the (I’ve lost count) time. By itself the missing tax credits will be a problem. But the price of coal, oil and natural gas will still be their own undoing as primary fuel sources. It’s about the money. Alternatives such as solar [...]

Aug

15

The Path to Saving Fuel By Reducing Weight

August 15, 2008 | 5 Comments

It’s weight, then air resistance, and generally overall efficiency in everything else. While oil spirals downward for the next stage in pricing we might be thinking to get lax and relieved, but it won’t last. Months maybe or a year or so and we’ll be spiraling up again. In the meantime getting set to invest [...]

Aug

14

Following the Thermal Solar Money!

August 14, 2008 | 2 Comments

Ausra of Palo Alto, California, who builds utility-level solar thermal power, has raised $24.5 million in a third round of funding from returning investors Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Now a new investor KERN Partners, based in Alberta, Canada, has also joined the round. This announcement is just over a month from [...]

Aug

13

Research For Teaching How To Buy Plugin Hybrid Electric Vehicles

August 13, 2008 | 4 Comments

John Axsen and Ken Kurani at the University of California’s Institute of Transportation Studies completed what may become a landmark in getting good handles on the personal vehicles available for purchase in the coming years in the form of plugin hybrid electric vehicles. (A pdf download) What the study learned is the state of consumer [...]

Aug

12

A New Kind of Refrigeration

August 12, 2008 | 2 Comments

Imagine a refrigerator, air conditioner or other compressed gaseous system that has no more coils, compressors and controls. Penn State’s Qiming Zhang is offering that his research is yielding a refrigeration technique that is based in ferroelectric polymers. Ferroelectric polymers exhibit piezoelectric and pyroelectric effects that are usually encountered in certain single crystals and ceramics. [...]

Aug

11

Breaking the Boundary – A Connection to a Better Fuel Cell

August 11, 2008 | 8 Comments

For a week I’ve marveled at the innovative connection made at Australia’s Monash University in which Goretex®, a material that’s commonly used in layered fabrics that allows passage of water vapor but not water droplets is being used in a fuel cell development. Starting with the Goretex® the scientists at Monash applied a fine 0.4 [...]

Aug

8

A New Super ION Conductor for Fuel Cells

August 8, 2008 | 1 Comment

First, not to be confused with a super conductor for electrons as we usually think of “super conductors,” this new material is about moving ions. That has important, perhaps huge implications for fuel cells. Solid oxide fuel cell technology requires ion-conducting materials as in solid electrolytes that transport the oxygen ions from cathode to anode. [...]

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